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Reviews
High School Musical 2 (2007)
Big disappointment for HSM fans
After a truly fun and Disney magical HSM, the sequel leaves the fan flat on the floor from disappointment. I found the entire first half of the film unfocused, boring and centered nearly entirely on Ashley Tisdale. We know that Disney likes Ashley and promotes her big time, but there were other talented actors and actresses that were underutilized and basically didn't add a thing to the film because they were never part of a storyline. They were treated solely as eye candy and background dancers.
The original HSM started to imply that there might be developing other couples that I had hoped would continue in this film. I wanted to see Chad and Taylor, as well as Jason and Kelsi, but instead we got a nearly unrecognizable Sharpay shoved down our throats.
Sharpay in HSM was crafty, self-centered and self-loving, but in this sequel, they turned her into a miniature Paris Hilton. Why the drastic character personality change? She was downright annoying and far from entertaining to watch. I enjoyed her in the original HSM, but really yawned at her in this one.
While I didn't like they way they tried to transform Troy into a first class jerk, I did enjoy watching Zac show us a much deeper range of acting skill. I enjoyed his angst number in black. He truly did remind me of Ren in Footloose and I can see him using that footage to try and land work for that developing remake. Zac is too talented to keep playing Troy. He has clearly moved on in both talent and skill. It was clear he tried to salvage what he could of this poor storyline, but even his talent wasn't enough to save such a bad script. It was nice to have his voice in this sequel and the only truly memorable number in the film is the one he and Vanessa sing (Music in Me), although I did like his angst number performance as well.
Vanessa was barely in the film. Same with Lucas, Chad and Monique. These are talented actors that barely had any screen time or story. What a shame to waste such talent. Shame on the producers and director! Unfortunately the script in this sequel really destroyed the magic of HSM and was a suffer to sit through.
The choreography was promised to be stepped up a lot, but there really wasn't much in the film beyond the first ten minutes and last five minutes. So where was this stepped up choreography? I kept looking for it, but it didn't ever show its face.
The entire rest of the film was primarily a really predictable, boring story that featured a character that was completely out of character (Sharpay). What a shame to have tanked so bad after such an enjoyable original film.
Hairspray (2007)
Kudos to cast, but production had some let downs
Being a fan of the original Hairspray, I was curious how well anyone could replace Ricki Lake and many of the others. After seeing the movie earlier today, I have to say kudos to this cast. Everyone one of them managed to pull out great performances.
Nikki's performance of Tracy was captivating. She really was endearing and entertaining and had me from the moment she rose out of the bed and sang Good Morning Baltimore through the entire film. You understood why someone like Link could fall for her.
Zac Efron can light up my screen any day! What a hottie and that wink was to die for! James Marsden is another hottie and who knew he could sing? Overall the film entertained and will be a hit! The cast kept us riveted and entertained the entire time from the moment the film started through the last kiss. But the direction or writing (not sure who to blame here) was a let down.
I felt the pacing was off. The story between Link and Tracy was rushed and many key points that explain them were missing. Link was really choppy and missing in this production. Not because of Zac's performance, but because the character suffered due to either cuts made on the editing floor or because of poor adaptation writing to this screenplay version. It was disappointing because Zac has talent and did an excellent job with the little he was given, but how much more I wanted to see Link's character on screen and better explained, more like the original 1988 version.
I also felt too much emphasis was on the parents in the film. While I loved the performances by Travolta and Walken, they really took up too much screen time and a lot of the storyline suffered as a result. I have to admit that I was not too much of a fan of Michelle's Velma. She was too one-dimensional. I normally love Michelle and was surprised that I didn't care for her work here. She just didn't bring in any depth.
The main characters (the teens) suffered because of the airtime that many of the adults and their side story lines took. The teen stories were rushed. Seaweed and Penny as well as Tracy and Link could have been far better explained. Brittany Snow's character suffered because she was barely noticed as Michelle's Velma got the airtime instead of her.
Queen Latifa was beautiful, strong and somewhat under-appreciated in this film. When she led that march, she was riveting. But why was she so little in the film? I felt that she was again a victim of poor pacing in writing or editing. The actress was excellent, but just not seen enough.
I felt that the message about integration could have come across far stronger had they allowed Link's character to have the same strength and depth and joined Tracy in the march. Likewise, where was Penny? In the original film, there were far more "whites" joining in the march than in this version. It just wasn't very well balanced.
James Marsden played Corny very well and has a good singing voice, but again, the character somehow lost a lot of depth compared to the original movie because of either poor writing or editing.
The choreography was a bit plain and the dancing overall was underdone. You had Zac who is a great dancer, Nikki proved she could strut her stuff, and Elijah who definitely could dance and a bunch of chorus dancers that could have delivered far more challenging moves than what we got to witness. While still entertaining, it was a bit disappointing because the talent was there, but underutilized.
Again, the film entertained and will be a major hit. It definitely should be seen, even with the production problems. The acting is fine, music is great and the dancing is fun.